May/June Book Club titles
MAY
May 2 “Call the Midwife” by Jennifer Worth (DB076915)
Autobiography of woman who trained as a nurse/midwife and served in London's impoverished East End during the 1950s. Describes her sheltered background, life in an Anglican convent, and long hours among poverty-stricken patients. Basis for the PBS series
May 9 “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde (DB056794)
First published in the late nineteenth century. A beautiful youth has his portrait painted by an artist with a flair for the morbid. The portrait becomes the mirror of its innocent-appearing subject's inner life. Introduction by Edmund White.
May 16 “Eleanor of Aquitane” by Allison Weir (DB051724)
Biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), a feudal heiress who was wed first to King Louis VII of France and later to Henry II--the Plantagenet ruler of England. Describes her marriages and children, her adventures during a Crusade, the rebellion she led with two of her sons, imprisonment, and her lifelong political involvement. 1999.
May 23 “The Cat who could read backwards” by Lillian Jackson Braun (DB034788)
Jim Qwilleran arrives early for his appointment with the managing editor of the "Daily Fluxion." His recent employment history is not good, and he really needs this job. But they want him to be an art writer. As Jim begins his assignment, he and his sidekick, KoKo, find themselves hot on the trail of a murder at the art gallery
May 30 “SEAL of protection Collection 1: Book 1” by Susan Stoker (DB101211)
Three novels and a novella of romantic suspense written between 2014 and 2015, featuring a team of Navy SEALS. In Protecting Caroline, a shy chemist and a Navy SEAL meet when terrorists hijack their plane. Also includes Protecting Alabama, Protecting Fiona, and Marrying Caroline. Violence, strong language, and explicit descriptions of sex.
JUNE
June 6 “Ordinary Grace” by William Krueger Kent (DB078187)
Minnesota, 1961. Thirteen-year-old Frank Drum's summer is steeped in death: a neighborhood boy hit by a train, a hobo found dead--and then a member of Frank's family is murdered. Frank is determined to seek vengeance and can't understand why his younger brother isn't. Some violence and some strong language. 2013
June 13 “Palomino” by Danielle Steel (DB017343)
A dazzling New York advertising executive flees to a California dude ranch after being ditched by her husband, a nationally known TV anchorman. On the range, Samantha does more than just forget, she falls madly in love with a rugged cowboy who promises her nothing but the irresistible passion of the moment. Some strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller 1981.
June 20 “The Wizard of OZ and the Land of OZ” by Frank L. Baum (DB015141)
Blown by a cyclone from her Kansas home to the wonderful Land of Oz, Dorothy meets the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and other fantastic creatures. In "The Land of Oz," Dorothy and a venturesome companion search for the lost heiress of the kingdom of Oz. For grades 4-7 and older readers.
June 27 “The Wager” by David Grann (DB113965)
"On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then … six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang. The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound." -- Provided by the Publisher